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Taking a systems view of plastic

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Plastic pollution in Cameroon, via Mouenthias on Wikimedia.

Plastic pollution in Cameroon, via Mouenthias on Wikimedia.

Lots of people are trying to do something about plastic. Which solutions are really helpful and which are just dabbling? Taking a systems view can help us think it through.

Ways of dealing with plastic

There are lots of initiatives and approaches to dealing with plastic. A few are listed here, with links to examples (not necessarily the best examples, just an illustration) or to other information sources:

How can we find the best solutions?

Here's how using a systems thinking approach can help.

1. What are the problems you'd like to solve (or the better future you'd like to create)?

In the case of plastic, there are two stand-out environmental problems:

  • The pollution caused in its manufacture (use of fossil fuels, creation of toxic or bioaccumulative substances, emissions of greenhouse gases).

  • The pollution caused at the end of its life (uncontrolled micro plastic pollution in air, water and land, as well as larger items interfering with wildlife and ecosystems).

  • For plant-based plastics, there's also the question of the impacts of agriculture.

2. What's the system that these problems are part of?

There are a number of connected systems, including

  • the life cycle of the plastic itself - raw materials, manufacture, transportation, use, disposal.

  • the 'use' systems - e.g. the life of a product (if the plastic is used as packaging), or the healthcare system (if the plastic is PPE).

  • the 'reuse/recycling' or disposal systems in place when it reaches the end of its life.

3. What are the significant elements of these systems, which impact on the problems?

These will include the supply chains / value chains which buy and sell plastic to each other, but also:

  • the systems of regulation and legal requirements,

  • any fiscal incentives (e.g. taxes, subsidies),

  • organisations active in recycling, waste disposal, pollution control,

  • consumers and citizens, and the things which influence behaviour (e.g. whether people refill and reuse, whether we litter).

  • ecosystems or other natural systems which are impacted or which move plastic around (oceans, micro-organisms, winds).

4. For a given 'solution', how does it impact on these interwoven systems?

For example, a business which is considering switching from single-use plastic to single-use compostable items, needs to understand whether the items will end up going into a composting system, or not. If there isn't a composting system able to receive them, the benefit of this switch is doubtful.

If degradable plastic ends up in a plastic recycling system, it can contaminate that system and result in otherwise recyclable plastic being disposed of. If the degradation leads to the release of microplastics, it hasn't solved the problem.

Plastic separated out for recycling needs a market - someone to use it as a replacement for virgin plastic or other problematic materials. We have seen the result of plastic waste exported for recycling but ending up as uncontrolled rubbish.

Refill and reuse systems need to be well-designed and attractive to consumers, with strong incentives to refill or reuse the item, and avoiding large transport distances.

5. Rules-of-thumb

There are some useful short-cuts, like the waste hierarchy. There are a few versions of this, but basically they all boil down to:

  • avoid using anything / prevent waste being generated

  • reuse (including refilling packaging)

  • recycle (into something useful, thus avoiding something being made from other raw materials). Sometimes this level includes composting.

  • burn / turn into fuel - but beware, plastic made from fossil fuel is still fossil carbon, so you'd want to avoid burning it if you could

  • dispose of to landfill - who knows, maybe one day we'll be mining our waste dumps for precious resources.

Some people in progressive businesses have really thought this through! Here's a great blog post from Julie Brown, founder of Growing Communities and Better Food Traders. The compostable cups used at their farmers' market are collected and composted by the organisation - top marks! The solution to the bags for the weekly veg scheme is more complex.

Systemic solutions

Since writing this for the Making the Path by Walking newsletter, I was told (thanks Tom!) about these two coalitions working on systemic solutions:

Making the Path by Walking

This post was first published in my newsletter, July 2021. Scroll right down to subscribe.